Losses from Iraq war prompt Rosary idea

For Lynda Macfarland, whose husband is in the military, the memory remains strong of a 2004 memorial service for Army Captain Sean Sims, a family friend who died in Iraq. Held at a military base in Vilseck, Germany, the service also remembered four other soldiers who died around the same time.

Mrs. Macfarland was impressed by the "faith and strength" of Capt. Sims' widow, Heidi, who had taught Mrs. Macfarland's son, Philip, when he was in fifth grade.

"I saw a wounded community that day," she recalled in an email from Germany to The Evangelist. "On the three-hour drive back to our home, I was so distraught over all the losses, all the pain and grief that I began to pray and ask God what I could do."

Inspiration

The answer -- a "Rosary for Warriors" -- came to her on the ride home and has been prayed by Catholics around the world ever since.

Not one to describe herself as a "Rosary fan," Mrs. Macfarland was surprised that the devotion was her first thought. But she felt that something was compelling about the idea, something that could even be chalked up to divine intervention.

Back home, she read more about the Sorrowful Mysteries, jotted down some ideas and took her notion to the prayer chain at a chapel in Heidelberg, which she was coordinating at the time.

Members of the group began to join her on Fridays to pray the Rosary for Warriors.

Meditation

The prayer began to help her with the questions and worries she had about the war, Mrs. Macfarland said.

Since then, her love for the Rosary has continued to grow.

"I always share what Pope John Paul II advised, which helped me so much in praying any Rosary: You must keep the Mysteries in mind, whichever ones you choose," she explained. "That meditation saves it from being empty, repeated words."

How to pray

To pray the "Rosary for Warriors," she said, simply pray the Rosary as Catholics normally would, meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries but adding a specific intention for each decade.

For the first decade, she recommends praying for deployed soldiers and their safety; for the second, wounded soldiers and their healing; for the third, the eternal rest of soldiers who have died in the war; for the fourth, the families of soldiers; and, for the fifth, victims of war, the nation and peace in the world.

Mrs. Macfarland chose the Sorrowful Mysteries because their content resonated so closely with her feelings, the wounds and stresses of soldiers, and the effects of war on soldiers and their families.

Support system

Mrs. Macfarland now lives in a military community in Freiburg, Germany. Due to recent losses, she said it is "now much in the same condition" as Vilseck in 2004.

"But we are resilient, strong, positive people who support one another and keep moving forward," she said of military families. "I am surrounded by spouses in the same boat as me, so there is great comfort in that.

"We are sad to be separated for so long. We worry a little about his safety, as well as the safety of everyone else. We are incredibly proud of the job Sean and the troops are doing."

Global prayer

After her Rosary idea appeared in Our Sunday Visitor, a national Catholic newspaper, other people carried it to places around the world.

It was prayed at a Memorial Day Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Washington, D.C., for example, and people have asked permission to distribute copies in prayer groups and Christian bookstores. During the summer, a European youth group prayed it while walking to the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, during World Youth Day.

"That was a big thrill," she said. "I am so grateful. The more people praying for our troops, the wounded, the fallen, the families, the victims of war, our nation, the better."

(Mrs. Macfarland's husband, Colonel Sean Macfarland grew up in Albany and Fort Plain. He is the commander of the Ready First Combat Team, 1st Armor Division of the U.S. Army, currently stationed in Ramadi, Iraq, a focal point of conflict in the ongoing war. His parents, Nancy and Garth, attend St. James Church in Fort Plain. The Macfarlands have two children, Philip, now in high school, and Maggie, who attends Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass.)

(10/19/06)